Apple iPhone 11 Pro: What is Wifi 6?

Along with the announcement of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, it was revealed that the device will have a featured called Wifi 6, but many may not be sure what exactly that is. According to The Verge, Wifi 6 is essentially just faster wifi. “Wi-Fi 6 is the next generation of Wi-Fi. It’ll still do the same basic thing — connect you to the internet — just with a bunch of additional technologies to make that happen more efficiently, speeding up connections in the process,” Verge journalist Jacob Kastrenakes explains.

Regarding the speed of Wifi 6, Kastrenakes says there are two answers. The “short but incomplete” answer is, Wifi 6’s speed is 9.6 Gbps. “That’s up from 3.5 Gbps on Wi-Fi 5,” he explains.

The he offers the “real answer,” writing, “Both of those speeds are theoretical maximums that you’re unlikely to ever reach in real-world Wi-Fi use. And even if you could reach those speeds, it’s not clear that you’d need them. The typical download speed in the US is just 72 Mbps, or less than 1 percent of the theoretical maximum speed.”

Wifi 6 is starting to become an available aspect of many new devices, such as the iPhone 11.

It is also available in many new laptops and tablets as well.

Consumers may be tempted to run out an start buying Wifi 6 enabled devices, but Kastrenakes does not recommend this.

“To be clear: this is not something you’ll want to run out to the store and buy a new laptop just to get. It’s not that game-changing of an update for any one device,” he offers.

“Instead, new devices will start coming with Wi-Fi 6 by default. As you replace your phone, laptop, and game consoles over the next five years, you’ll bring home new ones that include the latest version of Wi-Fi,” Kastrenakes goes on to say.